The Daily Show Sent Roy Wood Jr. to Answer the Eternal Question: How Racist Is Boston?

The Boston Globe’s Spotlight team published a seven-part series about their home city’s reputation for being racist last fall. It’s wonderful journalism, but it’s in print, and it’s really long, and it doesn’t have many jokes, so The Daily Show sent correspondent Roy Wood Jr. to investigate, on-camera and funny and under six minutes:

It’s an inspiring example of the show’s ability to wring laughs from anything, even a correspondent ruining his own interview by interrupting. It’s also a depressing example of white America’s ability to wring money from anyone whose skin is a different color: As Wood finds out, the household median net worth for white Bostonians is $247,500, versus $8 for U.S. blacks. The Globe ran a follow-up article to tell their readers that that number—again, that’s $8—was not a typo. So if you’re like Roy Wood Jr., and like to binge-eat when you get sad about structural inequality, stock up on sandwiches and donuts, then give the original Spotlight series a read.